The Inland Nation Tour: Postscript, obscured by smoke

“Sketchy” was the word that kept coming up, and even filtered through our hardcover-dictionary brains we knew what they were talking about when they talked about the Tiki.

We’d read the online ratings and comments about the Tiki Lodge, which give you the truer truth if you read down far enough. For example: June 14, Booking.com, 100% Verified Review: “All motels have that one f***** up room they don’t rent unless a white girl shows up w/ a black man.” (Disclaimer: Management of this site is not responsible for content of other people’s 100% Verified Reviews).

Our motel home for two Spokane nights was clean and the beds were good and though we noticed the light traffic coming and going from the short-term rentals up the way and the remote didn’t work for the ’90s-era TV and the bathroom light never did shut off, we were right where we were, and that was where we were.

sketchy (Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged, Second Edition, p. 1,700): 1. having the form of a sketch; presenting only major parts or points. 2. lacking completeness or thoroughness; inadequate.

We Roadies took a monumental step up in class and comfort at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort, home to Circling Raven Golf Course and our gracious host for the Idaho portion of the Inland Nation Tour. Okay, we get it, it was way too nice for the likes of us. We paid penance by gambling, drinking and eating fine food. The golf, as already mentioned in this space, was quite a little bit better than adequate. We so often have been forced in our travels to persevere in all conditions, and once again, we adapted.

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When we arrived in Spokane in the late-afternoon swelter on Friday, it was a sunny day, they said, but we couldn’t make out the cityscape of the Inland Nation capital through the smoke.

We weren’t alone in the Northwest, there in the grey pall of Spokane — winds blowing westward from raging fires in Montana brought the looming haze to the Lilac City, which had the effect, at least, of moderating the heat by a few degrees. The smoke in Grey Goatee Global HQ when we left it blew south from hundreds of wildfires in British Columbia. When we got back home on Monday night, it had only gotten worse.

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It wouldn’t be wrong to say a road trip by motor vehicle is half the fun when we venture away from Global HQ. This year, we flew, and what we lost in on-road shenanigans we made up for in time well wasted in a motel parking lot on the sketchy side of town, watching and remarking on Tiki World as it passed by through the smoke. Our reviews, as always, are 100 percent verified.